Eastern Wrestling League

Eastern Wrestling League (EWL)
Established	1975
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I
Members	7
Sports fielded	Men's wrestling
Region	Northeastern United States

The Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) is an NCAA Division I wrestling-only conference. It is made up mostly of schools from the northeastern United States whose primary conferences do not sponsor wrestling as an NCAA-qualifying event. The teams have traditionally rotated as hosts of the qualifying tournament.

The league's inaugural season was in 1976 (during the 1975-76 academic year) and had a charter group led by Penn State, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and three Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) schools in Bloomsburg, Clarion and Lock Haven. After 1977, Buffalo left the league, but West Virginia and Cleveland State were added, growing the league to seven teams. In 1988-89, the PSAC's Edinboro joined to form an eight-team league.

After the 1991-92 season, Penn State left the league when the university joined the Big Ten Conference, which holds its own NCAA Division I Championships qualifying tournament. In 1998-99, Virginia Tech joined the league, but the Hokies left following the 2003-04 season and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) after receiving an invitation to join for all sports. West Virginia left the EWL when it became an all-sports member of the Big 12 Conference in July 2012 and Pittsburgh moved to the ACC in July 2013.

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